EV-type Battery Hazards

[Johnnycomelately]

Thread prescription: A place to gather stories of EV (electric vehicle) and Hybrid vehicle and stationary battery-bank fires, and also technical articles about the ongoing engineering efforts for improved safety. Of course smaller device fire stories are welcome too, like abt laptops or electric scooters etc. or vapes or anything.

The tech is changing, but probs not fast enough. Please feel free to vent about politics or geopolitics, as you wish.


I will start off with a happening story.

There is a ship carrying cars from China, was going to Mexico, abandoned and on fire a few hundred miles south of Alaska’s Aleutian Islands.

Crew are all safe, were picked up from their liferaft pretty quickly by a nearby passing ship.

Of 3,000 cars, iirc ~60 are full EVs and several hundred are hybrids.


Vid is from a YT chan that focuses on vehicle and battery bank fires, including recommendations concerning safer practices. Guy seems solid.

I’ve seen lots of footage of electric cars on fire, one mostly underwater.



EV Fire Breaks Out on Ship: Morning Midas Abandoned at Sea

StacheD Training
42.7K subscribers

Posted June 4, 2025

“A cargo ship loaded with electric vehicles is on fire in the middle of the Pacific Ocean—and the crew is gone. The Morning Midas caught fire on June 3, 2025, forcing all 22 crew members to abandon ship. With over 3,000 vehicles onboard—many of them EVs and hybrids—the incident raises serious questions about how we transport lithium-ion batteries at sea.

In this video, I break down what we know so far, what likely went wrong, and how this fire compares to other high-profile EV ship incidents like the Felicity Ace and Fremantle Highway. As global EV shipments increase, so do the risks—and this latest fire could be a sign that current safety protocols just aren’t enough”

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=tDbuNAdQaj0

[Johnnycomelately]

Another report from a local org, Anchorage Daily News. A tugboat carrying “experts” and special gear will arrive at the stricken ship’s location in a couple days, supposedly Monday June 9, 2025. Another bigger tug, capable of towing the beleaguered RORO, has been arranged and will arrive later.


https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/2025...ast-of-alaska/


Salvage crew bound for cargo ship that caught fire off Aleutians
By Associated Press
Published: June 5, 2025

JUNEAU — A salvage team is expected to arrive early next week at the scene of a cargo ship that was carrying about 3,000 vehicles to Mexico when it caught fire in waters off Alaska’s Aleutian island chain.

A tug carrying salvage specialists and special equipment is expected to arrive at the location of the Morning Midas around Monday, the ship’s management company, London-based Zodiac Maritime, said Thursday. The crew will assess the ship’s condition, and a separate tug with firefighting and ocean towage capabilities is being arranged, the company said in its statement. In the meantime, officials are using the ship’s onboard satellite-connected systems to monitor it.

The vessel remained afloat as of Thursday morning, and images gathered by the U.S. Coast Guard showed it was still “alight with smoke emanating” from it, the statement said.

The Coast Guard has said it received a distress alert around 3:15 p.m. Tuesday about a fire aboard the Morning Midas, which was roughly 300 miles southwest of Adak Island. The ship was carrying about 70 fully electric and about 680 hybrid vehicles, the Coast Guard said, noting that the information was preliminary.

All 22 Morning Midas crew members were uninjured. They were evacuated onto a lifeboat and a nearby merchant vessel rescued them. They remained onboard the rescue vessel Thursday, according to Zodiac Maritime.

The 600-foot Morning Midas was built in 2006 and sails under a Liberian flag. The car and truck carrier left Yantai, China, on May 26, according to the industry site marinetraffic.com. It was headed to a major Pacific port in Mexico.

A Dutch safety board in a recent report called for improving emergency response on North Sea shipping routes after a deadly 2023 fire aboard a freighter that was carrying 3,000 automobiles, including nearly 500 electric vehicles, from Germany to Singapore.

One person was killed and others injured in the fire, which burned out of control for a week. That ship was eventually towed to a Netherlands port for salvage.

[Anchor]

I have an EV (Nissan Leaf). I am happy to report, that like the vast majority of American and Japanese EV's that are properly made, it has not yet burst into flames after over two years.

Based on my pre-purchase research I think that battery fires are rare, and those that do occur are down to poorly manufactured batches, physical damage or sabotage.

EV FireSafe an Australian research group found that there were 570 verified EV battery fires involving thermal runaway worldwide from 2010 to September 2024. This is out of over 40 million EVs on roads globally by 2023, per the International Energy Agency (IEA). This suggests a low incidence rate, though not all fires are reported or verified. In Australia they reported six major EV fire incidents, with causes like arson, external fires, crashes, and road debris.

The main problem seems to be that they are spectacular and newsworthy when they do kick-off - also they are much harder to extinguish and therefore can cause more collateral damage.

I recently read that one insurance company did find a higher probability of fires in the US:

AutoInsuranceEZ, using data from the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics and the National Transportation Safety Board, found 25.1 fires per 100,000 EV sales, compared to 1,529.9 fires per 100,000 for gas vehicles and 3,474.5 for hybrids.

Your mileage may vary. Pun intended.

A..

[Johnnycomelately]

Thank you, Anchor. Spirited yet measured objection there. I have read many comments by satisfied owners, and I wish you all well.

[Bill Ryan]

Yes to EV-type battery hazards. Do also see these threads!

• Electric buses violently catching fire
• The Electric Car Scam

[Jim_Duyer]

Well, with the Socialists running things up until lately, you are really not going to learn of the large number of EV related fires - especially when they were both touting them and encouraging their purchase through tax credits.
With the Green people having their say, you also don't hear much about the damage to the environment when they burn - not the smoke and plastics but the Lithium put into the atmosphere.
Any main stream media or science reports authored during the past four years was no doubt paid for by the CCP.
And unfortunately, Australia seems to be one area where the truth is highly controlled and enforced, much like England today.

[onawah]

There is no lack of videos from China of EVs burning and fields of rotting, unused EVs degrading into the already very degraded environment there. Lots of other problems with Chinese EVs, making them very unsafe (and not just in China...)

Why Chinese EVS are Killing People
serpentza
1.59M subscribers
Sep 22, 2024

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=ZaCw8I4Q0K8

**********

Hidden - China's Flagship EVs are Exploding in Huge Numbers
serpentza
1.59M subscribers
Apr 1, 2023

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=yOA7qKMcjcE

**************
Inside A Chinese EV Graveyard - Uncovering The Truth In Person
Inside China
51.5K subscribers
Aug 12, 2023

"Recent press reports and certain prominent YouTubers and Twitter accounts have been making some pretty strong accusations about Chinese EV graveyards, claiming false registrations to inflate numbers, environmental concerns, and corruption. But how much truth is there in the words? We visited one of the featured sites in person to see how much basis there was to the claims, and found there's even more to these sites than you might think."

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=uD8qqEx4G18

*****************

China’s EV Catches Fire, Burning an Entire Street! Car Show Chaos, Four EVs Smashed
China Observer
712K subscribers
Apr 29, 2025

"A devastating electric vehicle fire occurred on April 12 in Rongxian County, Yulin, Guangxi, destroying an entire street. A user alleged that a BYD Seagull’s charging pile exploded, stating, “Please investigate immediately. My neighbor’s BYD was charging overnight. Early on April 12, a loud explosion woke us, and smoke engulfed the neighbor’s house. Within ten minutes, our home was destroyed. My family of five, including a one-year-old, escaped via a second-floor window, losing all valuables.” Three days later, The Paper linked the fire to EV charging, but the fire department denied any EV connection. Media found the street sealed, with locals saying, “A fire occurred, but the cause can’t be discussed.” The user’s post was quickly deleted."

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Q0LHoBn-KDE

***************
Electric Bikes and Scooters too

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=gKHhsnCoDRQ

Ending up the same way there as regular bikes have been for years now

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=NFNbCyIl5oc

***************

Chinese E-Bikes are Exploding like Crazy - Self Destructing Spectacularly
serpentza
1.59M subscribers
Aug 31, 2023

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=ZpNCii-OTqw

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Truths About Chinese Electric Bikes that Nobody Tells You!
eBike Inspection
1.99K subscribers
Jan 8, 2025

"Chinese electric bikes have garnered mixed perceptions among customers worldwide. Some say they offer the best value for money, while others claim they don’t last. Some people swear they’d never get another bike, whereas others refuse to invest in a Chinese e-bike altogether. That’s why we decided to break down the whole gimmick surrounding Chinese e-bikes and share the truths about them."

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=9QPgTDNFdtU

[onawah]

Cars are burning on the streets in LA now with the riots ongoing, lots of very toxic smoke and occasional explosions being filmed live now.
Unclear if they are lithium batteries burning, but it seems likely given all the smoke and the length of time they have been burning.
The reporter said it's self-driving taxis that are burning on one street downtown.
Not safe at all--Lithium batteries and rioters are a bad combination.
People stupidly standing around close to the burning cars, breathing the fumes of the toxic smoke.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=-BrsI2vVHKA

[Johnnycomelately]

Posted by onawah (here)
Cars are burning on the streets in LA now with the riots ongoing, lots of very toxic smoke and occasional explosions being filmed live now.
Unclear if they are lithium batteries burning, but it seems likely given all the smoke and the length of time they have been burning.
The reporter said it's self-driving taxis that are burning on one street downtown.
Not safe at all--Lithium batteries and rioters are a bad combination.
People stupidly standing around close to the burning cars, breathing the fumes of the toxic smoke.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=-BrsI2vVHKA

This is still live, 10:~15: pm there (0515 UTC/GMT/Zulu). I’m watching on the other iPad.

Calm before a storm, I don’t know the location. “North something and Chavez”

Huge police presence, many on foot, quite a bunch of vehicles, even a dozen or more on horseback.

10:20:++, some contact beginning. Cop cars vandalized when cops were up the street and cars left unattended. Cops kicking and smashing their own smashed windshields out so they can see to drive. Some ties slashed too.

Apparently all of downtown LA is supposed to be on curfew, but there is lots of cars and pedestrians making noise nearby.

Show host is reporting on unrest, looting, in some other locations. Mentions a news helicopter livestream.


Edit: one of the news orgs with a chopper, ABC7. Split screen with street reporting.

Also, the above (onawah’s) livestream will likely end soon, host is wary of YouTube’s 12 hour limit. Said he may restart again. 22 minutes until 12 hours.

https://www.youtube.com/@ABC7/live

[Anchor]

Posted by onawah (here)
There is no lack of videos from China of EVs burning and fields of rotting, unused EVs degrading into the already very degraded environment there. Lots of other problems with Chinese EVs, making them very unsafe (and not just in China...)

Why Chinese EVS are Killing People

Yes I was careful about the countries I picked when talking about the safer EVs. China sadly was not one of them. Serpentza is not exaggerating in his video, there are a ton of safety issues caused by poor regulation and cutting of corners and corrupt and distorted socialist markets.

What normally happens is things like this[*] continue till it creates such a stink for the CCP that they literally find someone at fault and execute them - this of course creates incentives to do better, but not driven by good human service-to-others qualities like morality, integrity, responsibility and accountability, but rather fear based service-to-self preservation, and it never ends well.

Pay more and go with countries that take pride in safety, avoid "Chinesium" technology unless it is thoroughly audited and quality controlled - which is very doable - and does happen a lot, but in brands you pay more for.

Some of the best lithium iron phosphate batteries on the planet, such as those common in modern solar systems practically all come from China and from companies like CATL that understand that a good safety record is effective for marketing.

A..
[*] eg: poor batteries and thermal runaway, toxic baby food, buildings collapsing, many deaths in construction industry - the tip of the iceberg.

[Johnnycomelately]

Thank you, Anchor.

Break time, and RIP dear Amy Winehouse. I think she had a kind of thermal runaway.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=3QDDzaY1LtU

[Rawhide68]

I have a story of what happened to my older brother about 20 years ago when he worked at Ericsson developing new mobile phones.
He kept a prototype in his pants pocket for some weeks, and one day he felt heat from it, so he took it out just before it selfignited completely.

Scary indeed!

[Vicus]

When lithium-ion batteries set sail: Another warning to be ignored by the climate technocrats



On June 4, 2025, the Morning Midas — a cargo ship loaded with over 3,000 vehicles, including approximately 800 electric and hybrid models — was left adrift in the Pacific Ocean after catching fire 300 miles southwest of Alaska's Adak Island. Thankfully, all 22 crew members were safely evacuated. But the fire, reportedly starting on the vehicle deck, overwhelmed the vessel's onboard suppression systems and forced a total abandonment. The ship, flagged under Liberia and en route from China to Mexico, now floats like a ghost vessel — a monument to the hazards of our increasingly electrified obsession.

This latest incident is more than just a maritime mishap. It's a warning. A costly one, literally and figuratively, about the technological delusions driving climate-centric energy policies.

Let's not mince words: the proliferation of electric vehicles (EVs) is a politically engineered phenomenon. It's not market demand but bureaucratic fiat, massive subsidies, and regulatory cudgels that are flooding global supply chains with lithium-ion batteries. And when these batteries go up in flames, they don't just emit smoke — they torch the narrative that this energy transition is safe, sustainable, or rational.

The Lithium-Ion Fire Problem: Not Just a Technical Glitch

According to The Times, "The fire broke out on the vehicle deck of the ship, which is carrying electric vehicles that contain lithium-ion batteries, a type of battery known for being difficult to extinguish once ignited." Fire suppression systems failed to contain the blaze — just like they did in similar disasters, including the Felicity Ace, which sank in 2022 along with 4,000 vehicles after a battery-related fire.

continue:

https://www.sott.net/article/499960-...te-technocrats

[Johnnycomelately]

The car carrier Morning Midas, subject of thread OP and other threads above, has sunk.

https://www.seatrade-maritime.com/ac...-north-pacific

Burnt out Morning Midas sinks in North Pacific
The vehicle carrier Morning Midas that caught fire three weeks ago has sunk in the Pacific Ocean.

Marcus Hand, Editor
June 24, 2025

The Morning Midas sank on 23 June 16:35 hrs local time in the North Pacific according to a statement released managers Zodiac Maritime. The vessel sank in international waters according to a report from salvors Resolve Marine.

The Liberian-registered car carrier had suffered serious fire damage following a blaze that broke out 3 June and this was compounded by heavy weather and subsequent water ingress that caused the vessel to sink. Zodiac said the Morning Midas sank in waters 5,000 metres deep and 360 nautical miles from land.

“As a precaution, two salvage tugs containing pollution control equipment remain on site to monitor for any signs of pollution or debris. Their crews are safe. A specialised pollution response vessel is also en-route to the location as an additional precaution,” Zodiac said.

In a brief statement the US Coast Guard said it had "concluded its response to a fire onboard the cargo ship Morning Midas, which capsized and sank in international waters approximately 450 miles southwest of Adak on Monday".

It took salvors a week to reach the vessel following the outbreak of fire on the vehicle car which was sailing in the North Pacific at the time of incident.

Fire broke out on the Liberian-registered, 2006-built, Morning Midas at around 00:00 hrs UTC, or 2pm local time, on 3 June. The 22 crew onboard abandoned ship after firefighting efforts were unsuccessful and were safely picked up from a lifeboat by the nearby vessel Cosco Hellas.


The Morning Midas is carrying a cargo of 3,048 cars, of which 70 are fully electric and 861 are hybrids. An earlier statement from Zodiac said the fire emanated from a deck carrying EVs.

The Morning Midas was enroute to Lázaro Cárdenas, Mexico at the time of the incident.

Fires on car carriers and container ships from lithium-ion batteries are growing concern to the industry and insurers due to the difficulty in bringing them under control.

[Johnnycomelately]

A shipping expert, and a firefighter who specializes in EV fires, talk about the reasons for and implication$ of the recent decision by one shipping line to no longer transport EV vehicles. The shipper, Matson, mainly transports goods from USA to Hawaii and Guam.

L=24:41.

StacheD Training Joins to Discuss Matson's Decision to Suspend Shipments of Electrical Vehicles

What's Going on With Shipping?
534K subscribers

June 27, 2025

In this episode, Sal Mercogliano — a maritime historian at Campbell University (@campbelledu) and former merchant mariner — and Patrick Dunham from StacheD Training discussed the decision of Matson to suspend the shipment of Electric Vehicles (EVs) on board their ships from the West Coast of the United States to Hawaii and Guam.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=C12CI8rlLoY

[Bill Ryan]

There's increasing speculation (and very informed speculation, too), that last month's Air India 171 Boeing 787 crash immediately after takeoff was precipitated by a lithium battery fire in the tail section. Of all the worldwide commentary on the topic, this interview might be one of the most insightful.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=pzrSOD6PT-s

This photo shows the two Flight Data Recorders ('Black Boxes').



The one on the left was in the tail, the one on the right in the nose. The one in the tail has been completely melted, despite it being designed to withstand heat of 2000ºC, as in the kind of fuel explosion that might occur after a major crash.

But a lithium battery burns at 5000ºC, and only this could have destroyed the tail section Black Box as shown.

[Johnnycomelately]

History of the Lithium Ion battery, including how it works.

Somewhat ionically (haha), the discovery and early development was done by an oil company, in response to the 70’s Saudi oil embargo.

L=34:41.

This Battery Was Almost Too Dangerous to Exist

Veritasium

18.4M subscribers

August 7, 2025

Sponsored by CodeRabbit
Cut code review time and bugs in half. Try CodeRabbit at https://coderabbit.link/veritasium

For decades, a high-energy rechargeable battery seemed impossible - until we managed to tame one of the most volatile metals.

If you’re looking for a molecular modelling kit, try Snatoms, a kit I invented where the atoms snap together magnetically - https://ve42.co/SnatomsV

▀▀▀
0:00 What’s inside a battery?
4:11 How does a battery work?
7:15 How did we increase battery power?
11:13 The first rechargeable lithium battery
13:29 The Tiny Needles That Kill Batteries
16:06 Goodenough? We can do better
20:07 The birth of the lithium-ion battery
27:10 Why do batteries explode?
29:31 Blowing up a battery

▀▀▀
A massive thank you to Dr Billy Wu, Dr Sam Cooper, Dr Derek Sui, Professor Magda Titirici, Dr Jingyu Feng, Dr Monica Marinescu, Li Ren Thow, Genlin Liu and Sam Riley; and to Professor Guillermo Rein, Dr Harry Mitchell, Hanna Berry, and Dr Nick Kalogeropoulos at Imperial College London for their invaluable contributions to this video. And a big thank you to Conrad Duncan for all his help in pulling everything together.

We’re incredibly grateful to Kurt Kelty and the team at General Motors for their time and expertise.

Thanks also go to Dr Yuzhang Li and Prof Jay Morton Turner for all their help on the project.

▀▀▀
References: https://ve42.co/RefsBatteries

Image References: https://ve42.co/ImgRefsBatt

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=AGglJehON5g

[Johnnycomelately]

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)
There's increasing speculation (and very informed speculation, too), that last month's Air India 171 Boeing 787 crash immediately after takeoff was precipitated by a lithium battery fire in the tail section. Of all the worldwide commentary on the topic, this interview might be one of the most insightful.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=pzrSOD6PT-s

This photo shows the two Flight Data Recorders ('Black Boxes').



The one on the left was in the tail, the one on the right in the nose. The one in the tail has been completely melted, despite it being designed to withstand heat of 2000ºC, as in the kind of fuel explosion that might occur after a major crash.

But a lithium battery burns at 5000ºC, and only this could have destroyed the tail section Black Box as shown.

On the whole, this argument is unconvincing to me.

First, the overt support for the pilots, in line with Indian cultural values, shows a bias in seeking mechanical failure.

The professor is in some other discipline, and as smart as he is, his argument about the FADEC seems like hand-waving. No other plane-tuber has said that it can shut down the engines.

The timing of the RAT deployment is seen as crucial to his theory, and he assumes based on his analysis of a video that the official sequence of events is wrong. But that official sequence is from the internal flight data recorder (the front one, which was recoverable). Feels like more hand-waving here.

About the rear battery, supposedly mounted near or beside the FDR that burned super hot, what else could cause a L-Ion battery fire? A plane crash.

His argument about the sensor for fuel cutoff being (possibly? — that wasn’t clear) elsewhere at a valve, and not at the switch itself, sounds specious. Again, he is not an expert in the systems he talks about.

Bill, thank you for this excersise. As we have seen with Boeing and the FAA in the 737-Max debacle, the PTB in the civilian-industrial complex can be shady. But this nationalistic whistleblowing seems false, right out the gate.

I await the various final reports, which I expect will address the suppositions in this vid. Probs still a year off.